We’re arguing for the right side, but our approach isn’t working.
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College, health care, living wages. We’ve all seen these topics multiple times over recent years. Most of us, I assume, have read a number of blogs, articles, and essays on the issue, and have rather strong opinions on them, one way or the other. Often, it seems, these opinions are not articulated in the most productive matter.
What I, and most supporters of a higher minimum wage want, is for the minimum wage to do what it was intended to do: allow one adult to feed, clothe, and house themselves and their family with a full-time job, and have enough cash at the end to live life instead of merely exist.
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I’ve seen many of my fellow millennials attempt to make the case for these programs and initiatives by laying out the facts, from how student loan debt currently exceeds $1.3 Trillion, to how my generation increasingly has had to delay livelihood milestones such as home ownership, starting a family, and, in some more extreme cases, moving out of our parents’ home in general. My experience thus far is that these arguments, regardless of how much data we use to support them or the projected consequences thereof, have largely fallen on deaf ears. More often than not, I receive or read comments that equate us to being “lazy” or expecting everything for free. These misrepresentations of my position seem to serve as little more than hasty attempts to shut down any further discussion of the issue at hand.
Allow me to take this chance, as a millennial, to explain why I support each of these programs. My goal is to illuminate certain motives that, while perhaps not widely held, are nonetheless important reasons to push for a living wage, universal healthcare, and publicly-funded education.
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When I discuss and advocate for a living wage, I am not referring to anything like this absurd counterpoint of “Why not pay everyone $100 an hour?” Such ridiculous strawmen arguments serve no purpose but to misinterpret and redirect the conversation away from the issue at hand. I have not seen one serious advocate for such a drastic increase to the minimum wage; the closest argument is that, if the minimum wage had kept pace with the increase of productivity since the 60’s, it would be over $21/hr. What I, and most supporters of a higher minimum wage want, is for the minimum wage to do what it was intended to do: allow one adult to feed, clothe, and house themselves and their family with a full-time job, and have enough cash at the end to live life instead of merely exist.
Seems to me like we have our priorities mixed up when we can afford to flatten other nations while our own people die due to lack of coverage.
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I am all for discussing what that means in a time where both parents tend to work and millennials are delaying marriage and homeownership, but it does not change the fact that, in no place in the country is $7.25 an adequate wage. I’m not asking for a salary that would have let me purchase a Lambo straight out of high school; I want to be able to pay my bills, save some money, and pay for the occasional album or lunch date. You know, the kind of commodities that keep the economy going.
Hell, I’d like to have enough of a financial cushion that I could afford to be politically active. This probably isn’t something that crosses most peoples’ minds, but consider: I am currently breaking even with my income. For me to drive or take the bus anywhere requires about $5 minimum, which adds up pretty quickly when you don’t have a lot of money to spare. Anything on top of that, such as making signs or donating to whichever campaign, is currently not possible. I find it rather annoying that partaking in the most direct and basic part of democracy is not something I can do because of my income level.
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With regards to income, I get it. Businesses are concerned that paying a higher wage and/or providing healthcare to their workers will be too great a burden. Here I must ask: why is it up to businesses to provide healthcare? Why is that not something we agree to provide one another? The rest of the developed world has figured out how to do this, and how to do it cheaply and more efficiently than here in the States. What is stopping us from copying them? “Well we’re not [Insert whichever country here]. It simply won’t work” sounds to me a lot like saying the wealthiest, most powerful nation in the history of the world is incapable of doing what nearly the entire rest of the world has already done. “It’s too expensive.” Again, these other countries manage to keep healthcare costs down. Most of them, it’s also worth noting, haven’t spent over $1 Trillion dollars over the past 12 years bombing the Middle East, nor do they devote $0.57 of every tax dollar to the military. Seems to me like we have our priorities mixed up when we can afford to flatten other nations while our own people die due to lack of coverage. I find it especially perplexing that a nation full of so many self-professed Christians does not think providing its citizens with healthcare to be one of its highest priorities.
Contrary to what you may think, we do not want things for free. We want our tax dollars to go towards helping each other and building each other up.
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I have essentially the same argument for tuition-free college; how is it that we can afford the world’s largest military, but cannot find $70 Billion to education our people? It’s not like we don’t have the resources. Be it through a few new taxes or reallocating what we already spend, we are more than capable of providing for each others’ needs if we really wanted to. “But I had to pay my way through college” says the person who grew up before everyone owned a cell phone. Isn’t the point of society, in some sense, to make the world a better place for those that follow? I am well aware of the fact that I’ll have finished my education before it will be tuition free; I would still much rather see my taxes go towards fueling the passions and intellect of the next group of kids than bombing their peers to ash halfway around the world, or bailing out the next corporate schmuck that crashes the economy.
My generation has seen perhaps the greatest degree of change of any who have come before. In my lifetime, I remember my parents going from vinyl records and cassette tapes to CDs to Google Play. I remember booting up Windows 95 and having to ask permission to use the phone line to access the internet, an action I can now do with a device that fits in my pocket from damn near wherever I choose. I also remember when the economy crashed in ’08, just months after turning 18 and graduating high school; my first thought was “There goes my future.” I am part of a generation that may well be worse off than our parents, with fewer stable, well-paying jobs, not social security or pensions, possibly no chance of retirement, infrastructure that was old when Reagan was in office (and ruined everything), and all anyone who bears the responsibility for that has said is “quit whining and get a REAL job.” Not one person has apologized for their part in crashing the economy (electing the officials that allowed it and failing to hold them accountable, not protesting the Middle East wars more vehemently or better working conditions… I could go on), and instead expects us to accept that they put our futures on the credit card so they could continue to enjoy the bubble Reaganomics convinced them was real.
We are not unwilling to work long and hard for our futures. Contrary to what you may think, we do not want things for free. We want our tax dollars to go towards helping each other and building each other up. We want employers to see us as valuable assets, not expenses to be minimized and overworked. We see what the rest of the world offers its people and wonder “why not us?” We don’t want handouts.
We want what’s rightfully ours.
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Photo: Getty Images
Jonathan G. Studies have shown when the minimum wages rise, the economy picks up and there are no job losses. I would asks why should CEOs get so much money when it seems to me that it costs the companies too much money to keep a CEO if the new technology is replacing workers? Maybe we should cut back on the number of managers including CEOs since they oversee fewer and fewer workers plus lets cut the pay and benefits of the CEOs down to nothing since they can no longer justified being pay so much to oversee so few… Read more »
Well said Chris, and to Mahoney, Liz, mark, Mr. Brechlin and J. Walters, you guys and gals are completely out of touch in the real world and have completely close minds.
Because you forgot they want the same relative profit. That is a simple reason. You guys simply just don’t get economics nor human nature. In a perfect world, your perfect world, the owners would be ecstatic to not raise prices with an increase in one viable. Wages. Capitalism ALWAYS demands maximum return. And that is human nature unless under rigorous control. Which quite frankly doesn’t man y’all worry me. You have to look at the marginal increase in sales vs wages. Suppose everyone saves their money. No sales increase at all. Increased costs. No sales increase. How long before owners… Read more »
Mark people like you don’t get economic and human nature so you funk you social psychologist classes. Capitalism needs to learn to live with less maximum return.
We DO have publicly funded college education – it’s called the GI Bill. You can also go the route of the service academies and ROTC. Don’t like those? Some high schools still have Vo-Tech and pushing those that don’t to re-establish them is an easier task than getting college paid for. Those will land you the ability to earn a “living wage” FAR fast than most college degrees. Why? Because you learn an actual concrete SKILL SET that is useful for something in the real world. You want a high wage? Outstanding! Go back and learn to be a welder.… Read more »
I would go to school to learn welding or some other hands on job. Just one problem, I can’t aford to feed myself. I’ve done the math. People can’t just pick up and go to school with out support.
Liz, people should not have to join the military to get an education an/or the GI Bill. In addition, about 45 million Americans are happy with Obama care which is a lot better than what you can’t get from the HMOs and those HMOs have kept raising prices while cutting back on services. Taxes have skyrocket because the corporations and wealthy people have been successfully in paying little or no taxes and the cities, counties, states and the federal government expects the rest of the population to make up for lost revenue.
You guys didn’t leave much room to comment … So all I ask is that Chris respond to what’s been said.
On a personal note, my son is a millennial who worked full time and put himself through college without government subsidies but did live at home. It took him longer to get the degree but stayed with the same company and through the years moved up through the ranks and now operates his own store. And BTW, he’s biracial.
Sorry Chris, this was a nice article, but I have to side with our not-so-couth, old-timers on this one. You tried to bring up some good points, but I’m afraid they still miss the mark. I agree that it’s a noble cause to want to make the world a better place (and absolutely worth pursuing), but this article wasn’t written to that end. It was written because life is hard for millennials and we don’t feel like we’re being heard or at least given a fair shake. Speaking as a fellow millennial, it’s true that we face a crumbling financial… Read more »
Old timers?
Get off my lawn you kids….
That, Michael was very, very well thought out and said. I especially liked the part about the free education. Notwithstanding that it’s not free of course, the fact that more associates degrees will mean little, and therefore the competition for higher degrees that much more, and from the lower rated and cheaper institutions less meaningful. I completely agree with your dislike of bailouts for companies that are basically poorly run. That makes no sense to me. That was a gimmee for the unions. Like extending unemployment benefits in northern Minnesota. There are no jobs up there. So extend the benefits… Read more »
I’d just like to point out that we’re not asking for free education. We’re asking for a better return-on-investment value for the taxes that we already pay.
It was a point that was not lost on me when I would walk into the local technical college to go to class and listen to the fighter jets take off on training runs at the nearby airport, realizing that each time they went up, it cost more than my entire annual tuition.
well Jonathan G, take heart. As you get older you’ll be thinking even more about your lack of return on investment of your tax donations, and then you’ll understand where us cold, heardhearted old coots are coming from. yep, the ones who are Republicans conniving to deny you what’s rightfully yours! Bastards we are! take heart, my young and inexperienced lad, as it’s going to get worse for you. and then you get to hear how the next level of youngun’s want to take even more of yours so THEY can get what you worked your ass of for all… Read more »
Mark, people like you and the Republicans are a bunch of bastards and believe that you are entitled to everything while the rest of us are not entitled to anything.
Are you even capable of making a post without insulting someone?
And you say the conservatives are closed minded. Behold the tolerance of the Left.
Physician heal thyself.
You seem to be very generous with my money. You see when you want the government to fund these things, it is my taxes that go up.
And yes I paid for college before the cell phone. Cell phones are a luxury good. A luxury good is something you buy after your needs are met. A cell phones is not a right. College is also a luxury, not a right.
Let this old man give you some advice, a degree in music theory
Is not going to pay your bills.
Lastly, it is not my job to make society a better place.
A cell phone is a luxury? Try–just try–to hunt for jobs without a means of receiving phone calls and/or email. Or try–just try–keeping an on-call job without a telephone. Impossible. Now before you say “landline,” consider that at least in my area, landline service that includes long-distance starts at around $50/month, before fees and taxes. Sometimes the providers require a credit check and a long-term contract. It certainly requires stable living arrangements where you can install a landline, and when all is said and done, you have a telephone that you can only use when you’re at home, in a… Read more »
Cue the trombone with the mute: waa waa waa waa, in a descending tone . Angry old men indeed! How petulant!
You talked about getting a better return on your investment. Fact is since youryour not making that much, otherwise you wouldn’t be whining about thisthis, you pay very little if any taxes. Therefore your personal rate of return is VERY HIGH at this point. Revel in the fact that you rate of return will NEVER be higher than it is today. If nothing else you can take THAT to the bank!
Studies have shown Mark that for every $1 investment in college, you get back $7 investment returns put back into society, so yes, society gets a better return on investing in the future of the American college students.
By the way Mark, corporations and wealthy people pay little or no taxes even though they make a lot of money and the reason why they pay so little is due to their lobbying efforts.
“And yes I paid for college before the cell phone. Cell phones are a luxury good. A luxury good is something you buy after your needs are met. A cell phones is not a right. College is also a luxury, not a right.” Let this old man give you some advice, a degree in music theory Is not going to pay your bills. Lastly, it is not my job to make society a better place. Let me give you advice old man. In Europe, they don’t view college as a luxury but as a right which is why they have… Read more »
And corporations and wealthy people are very generous in stealing money from their workers and from the goverment.
No you’re not fighting for what’s right, nor one that has been thought through in the most modicum of effort. I do believe though that you don’t want anything for free. Just what’s fair. 15 dollar minimum wage. In a short time prices will rise accordingly for all, and you’ll be back in the same position as you were before, relatively speaking. Did you put conditions on the 15 such as age? Nope. So a brand new 16 year old first jobber who is unproductive as it is is now getting twice as much. Or rather halving their productivity which… Read more »
Forgive me if your comment on the $15 minimum wage sounds like a regurgitated supply-sider talking point, rather than an argument. Its constant repetition may get people to accept it, but repetition doesn’t make truth. It doesn’t answer some key questions: * How much will prices actually rise? Wages are not the only expenses for businesses that employ minimum wage workers–and in many cases payroll is not even their largest expense–so a doubling of the minimum wage shouldn’t lead to doubling of prices. * Given that fact, would minimum wage workers really be back to the same position, relatively speaking?… Read more »
Oh, I forget a couple of questions:
* How much will sales increase due to the increased buying power of minimum wage workers, and how will that affect profitability and prices?
* If the companies that employ minimum wage workers are currently reporting fat profits, why do they have to raise prices at all if payroll costs rise?
Again Mark, you have outdated economic theories that have failed time and time again.
15 dollar minimum wage. In a short time prices will rise accordingly for all, and you’ll be back in the same position as you were before, relatively speaking. Did you put conditions on the 15 such as age? Nope. So a brand new 16 year old first jobber who is unproductive as it is is now getting twice as much. Or rather halving their productivity which wasn’t great to begin with. So I suppose half of nothing is still nothing. Just costs twice as much for it. You are wrong Mark, MacDonald pays their workers in Denmark $20 an hour… Read more »